Before We Forged

[Psychoduck]

HaloCustoms is a great place for talented designers to share their forge creations, but how did we all get where we are as forgers? What other experiences with level design have we gained from other areas? The purpose of this thread is for forgers to share their creations from other games and to chat about how their experiences there have fed into their forging.

So, post screenshots of your creations from outside forge below, whether they be from Minecraft, Far Cry, or any other game with level-editing capabilities.

My level design experience from before I forged took place largely in the RTS game Star Wars: Empire at War. There was a pretty tight online modding community for that game, and I became involved in a few modding projects. I was in middle school at the time, and I wasn't thinking very critically about designs. The singleplayer levels we created couldn't even be tested until they went through the process of being integrated into a custom campaign in the game, so testing failed to play the critical role that it always needs to for map designers. Still, it was exciting to craft epic thematic levels based within the Star Wars universe. You can see some of mine below.









I don't have very many good screenshots. Still, hope you guys njoy this thread. I look forward to seeing what you all have come up with outside of forge!

 

[PA1NTS]

I don't have any screenshots due to all of it being on an old hard drive that exploded.

Age of Empires 2 had a really badass map editor. Not only that, but you could create a full campaign using the tools available. You could add triggers, that caused audio clips to play and text to appear. The triggers could also be tied into AI opponents and enemies. You could even control the top down view with triggers. For example I had it setup so when you destroyed the enemy town center, your screen would flash and field of view changed to an oncoming pack of wolves (yes you could even control wildlife) complete with audio clips and text.

My favorite thing to do was re-create medieval battles from some of my favorite movies.

To this day, I haven't seen a map editor with so many variables in the toolset.

Wish I had still had the campaigns available.

 

[moo43]

I don't know if anyone here ever played Timesplitters 3. It a had a pretty cool map editor that I use to make maps on before Halo 3 came out. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them or the harddrive they were on.

 

[buddhacrane]

I don't know if anyone here ever played Timesplitters 3. It a had a pretty cool map editor that I use to make maps on before Halo 3 came out. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of them or the harddrive they were on.

Ah ha! Yes! This!

I was only just thinking "hmm, I don't recall actually ever making anything prior to Forging in Halo 3" but, as it so happens, just like you, I also made maps in Timesplitters - it was quite fun to do actually. I remember now that in Timesplitters 2 they even added the ability to make "Campaign-esque" maps with it - you could place down AI, and alter their behaviour slightly; you could setup objectives and goals. I remember trying to remake the "Bunker" mission from Goldeneye.

This is what Timesplitter's Map Maker was like (random video I just found):

Damn, now I really wish they let us do that stuff in Halo Forge, lol! That or give us a HD re-release of Timesplitters 2

 

[BlazeDillon]

I don't have any images or anything sadly. So story time.

I grew up on sims, tycoon style games, tony hawk and ddr. Yes Dance dance revolution. although 3 of those are obvious for something to get out creativity but but I had to urge to create things to go as far as to build my own steps in DDR. These are where I started to build things but even before these I drew out loads of designs. Ever since I played 007, perfect dark and other games as a child I had always wanted to design the maps. By the time halo 2 was released I was obsessed. Not being impressed by halo ce in the slightest, I actually never thought I'd like a first person shooter again. Then halo 2s map design and excellent gameplay combine with my recent discovery of halo custom edition that my older friends had been using at the time, I was in love. I filled sketch books with designs and notes, even aspired to create my own weapons with new balances to cater to the maps! Theres a lot more stuff in between, but from second halo 3 came out, I got right on rebalancing the stock maps with better weapon layouts and adding jumps/blocking routes. Needless to say, by the time foundry came out I had a small grasp on what I could be doing and even with the limited abilities, I made do. Thanks to forgehub back then the glitches were found and shared and within no time at all I was at the top of the game at the time.

Now we're here. The end!

 

[zombievillan]

^Dude, I thought Halo 3 started it until I read that post. I used to build skateparks in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2, 3 and so forth for hours & hours. I was a skater so I was fascinated by that. I think what took me to Forge though is just that artistic, creative itch or something. I have always loved to draw and design ever since I was a little kid and whenever I discovered forge I went crazy with it. I loved adding to the Pit & to Epitaph. I would build extra structures & levels out of crates & palletes. Ithink Foundry was already out for awhile before I even noticed you could move EVERYTHING. I became obsessed with it then & that was before I even knew how to merge & interlock.

 

[Elliot]

Woah, I had completely forgot about Tony Hawk's map editor! I played on that for hours on end, just as I do with Forge.

 

[Berb]

The Timesplitters map editor, such joy...

 

[Skyward Shoe]

I didn't come from another level editor, Forge in Halo 3 was my first. Nope. When I was a wee lad all we had to build maps with was a stick; two sticks and a rock for the whole playground, and we had to share the rock!

I spent a lot of time building forts out of sticks and rocks and the like out in the dessert/ shrubs that we called a forrest. I also spent around 90% of my childhood immersed in lego bricks, built everything from houses to ships to some working lego rifles and pistols.

 

[RegrettedKarma6]

My experience with editors came from RTS games that my brother had, particularly Age of Empires, Starcraft, Warcraft and Commander and Conquer: Generals. I was a kid who had no idea what I was doing but I remember it being fun ahah. I also spent a lot of time with lego, bionicles and all that.

 

[Zaden]

Dat RPG Maker, tho